Author: Helena Feldstein

This is our final day in Amsterdam. We pre-booked a tour of the Van Gogh Museum, which we regret. The guide was okay but the museum itself was disappointing. It is located in Museum Square, close to the Rijksmuseum. Other than some of his early self-portraits and the famous Sunflowers, most of his best-known paintings are either in other museums or in private collections. So, no Starry Night, no Water Lilies (although there was an earlier one on exhibit). For €192, skip this. You can just get an entry ticket for much less and rent headphones for €3.95 and get the same information. FYI…

On the way to the museum, with our trusty phones being used as navigation (as was everyone!), I tripped and fell. Fortunately, there wasn’t any significant damage but I must have bruised my ribs on the left side of my chest. I didn’t feel anything at all until later that night. There isn’t much you can do about ribs anyway, so I will just grin and bear it. Walking, sitting, or most activities (including eating) are not affected, so far).

After many recommendations from friends near and far, we made a reservation at an Indonesian restaurant for their famous rijstaffel. After either a soup or small appetizer skewers of meat, the dinner is a selection of small plates of food, both meat and vegetarian, that are part of a huge dinner. We had at least ten courses, most of which were unpronounceable and/or unrecognizable. The flavors were very mixed, from sweet and sour cucumber to a barbecued something.

The best part was that we shared it with our friends from Ajijic, Bobbi and David Sherer, who landed from their cruise that morning. We planned this months ago. It was fun to catch up on their travels and ours. And, they still have weeks to go traveling all around the Mediterranean.

While on the cruise, Bobbi wasn’t feeling well, so David went to the ship restaurant and was seated with a couple. As they talked and David asked them where they are from, they said that they live in a little town in Mexico, south of Guadalajara. David played dumb and kept asking questions, without divulging that he also lives in Ajijic. He finally had to tell them and everyone laughed. What a coincidence!

It was now time to return to the hotel to pack up for our morning flight to Madrid, where we pick up our non-stop flight to Guadalajara. Only having a carry-on bag and an under seat bag, we did fret a bit about weight but so far, when we checked in at every airport, our bags were never weighed. Of course, the one place that may weigh your bag could be the one that says we are overweight. So, we pack accordingly, as if we would be weighed.

I spent the afternoon shopping at Primark, a department store that has locations throughout Europe. The one in Madrid is six stories tall with a central courtyard that fills the store with light. You can’t imagine what they have. The one in Amsterdam is only four stories tall but still full of merchandise that is so inexpensive and fun, you can’t resist.

After a fun time shopping, I decided to leave a number of items at the hotel to be replaced with the new items I purchased. I hope someone can use them. (That was in my mind before we left on the holiday.)

Tomorrow, we will walk the 20 minutes to the Centraal Train Station to go to the airport. By the way, when we arrived, we didn’t know how far we were from the hotel, so we took a taxi. Big mistake! It was €33 for the 7-minute ride. Lesson learned.

We are ready to go home…

Today, we walked to a meeting point to join a group on a bus going to Marken, Zaanse Schans, Edam, Volendam, and an area that still has windmills (although they are not functioning as they were used originally). As we drive to these towns, we go through an area in a relatively new part of what is called north Amsterdam, where once there were only farms that stretched for miles, but now have many housing options. Amsterdam, it seems, is too expensive so living just north of the city, a 10-minute train ride away, is an excellent option.

First, we stopped in Marken, a former island that is now connected via a short causeway. It is a charming town with neat, well-maintained homes and row houses. The people in this town are all Protestant for some reason, whereas the main religion throughout the Netherlands is Catholic.

We enjoyed meandering through the streets, with fewer bicycles to avoid. Next, we went to Zaanse Schans, where we visited a farm that raises mainly Jersey cattle, but also goats and sheep. The Henri Willig Cheese Farm is known for its amazing quality and variety of cheeses. The most amazing part of the visit was seeing how automated the farm is.

The cows can go in and out of the stables whenever they want, eating the various plants and grasses, then going to the milking station on their own when they need to. The pastures are not treated with chemical fertilizers or pesticides. In the barn, the floor is maintained by use of a giant iRobot that removes the manure constantly, without disturbing the cows. The Jersey breed is more productive in milk (and also has more fat and protein naturally), needs less food and produces significantly less manure. That is a good thing!

The cows also have a sensor tag around their neck that reports the amount of milk they produce when they go to the milking machines. Their stables has transparent sides and roof for more sunlight and a foot of fresh straw so the cows will be warm and comfortable. Rain water is collected and goes into troughs as drinking water, the cows can go to a large brush (like those in an automated car wash) to get a massage, which they apparently love. There is even a feeding robot so each cow can get a dose of concentrated food while they are in the milking robot (yes, there is such a thing), with a formula specifically for that cow based on the sensor on their collar.

This is definitely more information than you ever wanted to know about raising cattle for cheese-making but it was an eye-opening experience for us to see how automated this process can be.

When it comes to making the cheese, it is strictly hands-on. They have hundreds of varieties to select, from typical garlic and herb to black garlic, whisky, red or green pesto, beer, and lavender. If you are interested, they ship their cheeses worldwide. Go to www.henriwillig.com for all the information. By the way, the cheese tasting was amazing!

We then went to Edam, where this type of cheese is ubiquitous. No tasting here but a cute town. Volendam, on the sea across from Marken, was our next stop. It is a fun town where we had lunch and a stroll through the many shops. The food was delicious and the people-watching enjoyable!

Finally, we went to an almost extinct place to see the traditional windmills that used to grind grain, chocolate, and more. It had a Disney-like feel and was filled with tourists. For only 6 Euros, you can go into a windmill and climb to the top!

Back into town where we wandered across the street to have a wonderful Mediterranean dinner. All in all, it was a good day!

We again went to our favorite grocery store around the corner and were able to get delicious food for breakfast. We found a sunny bench and enjoyed coffee, tea, croissants and even breakfast burritos. it was very enjoyable.

Afterward, our first stop of the day was a 25 minute walk to the Rijksmuseum, an amazing venue known for its extensive collection of Rembrandt Van Rijn and Vermeer paintings. The museum was founded in 1798 and first opened in 1885. In 2013, after a ten-year renovation at a cost of €375 million, it is the most visited museum in the Netherlands  with record numbers of 2.2 million and 2.47 million visitors. It is also the largest  art museum in the country. You could literally spend days there and not see its vast collection of art.

Suffice it to say, we spent the majority of our time there seeing the Rembrandt paintings of which The Night Watch is one of his most famous paintings, as well as The Jewish Bride. His attention to detail is unrivaled.

The museum also had a current exhibition of Franz Hals paintings. He was not appreciated until later in his life because he moved away from the traditional way of depicting subjects using fine brush strokes so the paintings looked almost like a photograph. Later, his brush strokes were considered “rough,” meaning that they were visible and more like the impressionists of his time. That school of painting evolved, with one of its most famous artists, Van Gogh among others. He also painted his subjects in more realistic poses, even smiling instead of looking grim, as was the custom. We enjoyed seeing the best of both painters. The next time we are in Amsterdam, we will visit again and hope to see more.

We are becoming acquainted with the area now, especially after walking over 20,000 steps today. There are many unique shops to see, even a rubber ducky store with hundreds and hundreds of ducks, of all sizes and characters. There was a store with only rainwear and items that are rain resistant, such as hats, backpacks, and purses. Many of the popular stores are here, as well a lots of designer brands. FYI, Amsterdam gets a lot of rain, but the people who use bicycles as their main mode of transportation, are undeterred by the rain.

Speaking of bicycles, everyone rides bikes here. The bike lanes are super highways and you have to make sure to look left and right before crossing any street. That is why you see mainly fit people here, of all ages. Some are on e-bikes but most are not. So, leg power is important.

Some bikes have a large attachment on the front, either to carry their children or for shopping. Parkinga car in Amsterdam is quite expensive, around €8 per hour, so bikes are definitely the way to go. Another option is a minuscule electric car that fits one or two smallish people, but don’t bring a large purse! It will not fit! They can park parallel or perpendicular to the sidewalk. Even Amazon delivers on a bike fitted with a larger box to hold the items. Jim noticed that the bike lanes are red because of the blood of the bikers when they crash! We never saw one crash or one accident. The bikes are like silent cicadas… everywhere you look!

One interesting experience we had today was seeing a glassed enclosed garage-sized building on the sidewalk of an up-scale row of homes. It seems that if you own a home/townhouse in this neighborhood, it comes with an underground parking place. You go to the computer screen on the outside of the “garage,” put in some information, pull your car into the building once the door has opened, go out of the garage, and press the correct buttons. Then, the car goes down to a lower level while on the elevator floor. Once down, there is some kind of mechanism that takes the car to the correct parking spot. It is magic (and I am sure not a cheap addition to the purchase of one of these beautiful homes but included in the price). We spoke with a couple of car owners about this. With such limited parking options, this is a little piece of heaven.

Getting back to our day, we had hours to relax before our end of day tickets to see the Anne Frank House. When I visited Amsterdam so long ago, you could go to any of the museums or tourist destinations either for free or pay a nominal amount when you arrived. Not so now… We booked visits and excursions many weeks in advance and the cost was far from nominal. If you try to be spontaneous, you will never get into any of the museums or tours.

When we arrived at 8:30 PM, there was a large group assigned to that time. We had a preliminary overview when we went on the Jewish Walking Tour a couple of days ago but nothing prepares you to see how eight people lived in an attic for two years, trying to keep quiet during the day so the factory workers below would not hear them and give their existence away. No walks outside. No looking out of the painted-over windows to have the sun warm their faces. Relying on a few people who would smuggle in food and other necessities, this was their lives.

When they were ultimately taken away, it was on the last train from Amsterdam, only days before liberation by the Allies. Anne’s father would be the only survivor. He searched for his family, only to find that they all perished, either in the gas chambers or from typhus. It still boggles the mind and I had heard many of the stories my whole life from my mother,  a Holocaust survivor of Auschwitz.

The sun doesn’t set here until about 10:30 PM, so the walk back to our hotel is in full daylight. Another good day in Amsterdam. Logged over 26,000 steps!